Page 48

She kicked the door open, rolled out onto the ground and to her feet in one motion and then ran like she’d never run before in her life.

She dodged randomly from side to side as she went, but it barely slowed her headlong flight.

She ran into the trees and dived behind the first good-sized fallen log she came across.

Propping the pistol on the log, she trained it on the clearing and searched frantically for a glimpse of the shooters or at least their positions.

There. A muzzle flash from across the little valley.

And another one from beyond the bullet-riddled cab.

That guy would have a better angle to shoot at Alex, so she trained her weapon on him.

Disbelief that she was engaging in a gunfight briefly passed through her mind, but she shoved it aside. Alex needed her.

The cab’s front door flew open, and she shot at the closets shooter until he had to dive for cover, then she shifted her aim to the second shooter.

She squeezed off two rounds at that guy and was pleased to see he ducked as well.

She swung back to the first shooter ‘s position and sent another round in his direction for good measure.

Alex raced from the car much as she had and almost landed on top of her as he dived across the log. She rolled aside at the last minute to avoid being summarily crushed.

The swale went quiet. Carefully, she ejected her clip and counted bullets fast. Seven rounds left. One would already be in the chamber. Eight shots to live or die.

Alex jerked his head at her to follow him and rose to a crouch. She mimicked him and was not surprised when he took off running up the hill. High ground was a sniper’s friend. The reached the top of the rise and Alex paused his headlong dash to crouch between two table-sized boulders.

She knew from games in the woods with her brothers that stealth was vital, now. Alex leaned close to murmur low and urgent. “This is as defensible a position as we’re likely to find. You’re going to have to cover one direction while I take the other. Welcome to on-the-job armed combat training.”

Holy crapoli .

He continued, “We have limited ammo, so wait until you’ve got a close, clear shot to fire. Got it?”

“Yes.” She couldn’t’ resist adding in a rush, “I’m so sorry I didn’t believe you. You were right. It’s all real. You’re not crazy.”

“Thanks. Now concentrate. Slow your breathing and focus.”

A strange calm overcame her. Adrenaline was screaming through her blood, and she felt light and weightless. But her mind was crystal clear. Every leaf, every blade of grass was vividly outlined as she peered out of the narrow gap in the boulders.

Time seemed elongated, each second stretching out around her as she waited. Alex’s presence was warm and steady at her back. They could do this.

“Incoming,” he murmured. “One’s circling to my left. Should come into your line of fire in a few seconds. I’ve got the second guy.”

Her pulse increased even more, and it already was leaping in her veins like a rushing rapids.

She concentrated on the forest to her right, alert for the slightest movement.

Any second, now. She braced her shooting elbow on her upraised knee and used the two-handed grip on the pistol that her father had taught her for maximum stability.

There. Was that a shadow in the trees? So jumpy with nerves that she could hardly sit still, she waited a few more heartbeats to be sure. Alex had said not to waste ammo.

Could she do it? Could she pull the trigger and kill another human being? The words she’d heard so many times in her youth held entirely new meaning for her: Kill or be killed . Her brothers and her dad hadn’t seemed to think it was a difficult choice at all.

An image of sweet baby Dawn’s face flashed through her head. The little girl deserved to have parents. She’d already lost so much in her short life. Katie’s fist tightened around the butt of the pistol. She and Alex had no choice at all. They had to do whatever was necessary to stay alive out here.

The shadow glided forward, moving away from her and slightly right to left.

She would have to time it carefully for when the attacker was between trees.

She picked a gap ahead of the guy and waited for him to reach it.

She drew in a slow, deep breath the way her dad had drilled into her, and held it as the black-clad man stepped into the gap. She squeezed the trigger.

The pistol leaped in her hand, startling her. The man fell or dived to the ground—she couldn’t tell which—but from above him on the hill like this, she still had a small sight line to target him.

Alex shot twice behind her, quickly. After her shot, his target must have taken off running.

Two shots. Right. Her brothers and dad said you always double-tapped your target. Shoot once to drop it and shoot a second time to make sure it’s dead.

She’d been a pretty good markswoman over the years. Assuming this weapon was sighted reasonably true, she could make the second shot. She exhaled slowly, held her diaphragm perfectly still, lined up the pistol’s sight on the black, leather-clad lump and took the shot.

A grunting cry from her target signaled a hit.

Uh huh. He’d been playing possum. But now he was shot for real somewhere in his center of mass, which meant he was probably seriously wounded.

Should she shoot him again or save her bullets for someone else? God, she wished he had more training.

“Incoming, your left,” Alex bit out.

She swung her attention to the left, setting up for another shot.

A man burst out of the trees no more than a dozen feet from her, scaring the hell out of her.

She fired twice, fast, almost instinctively.

The guy slammed backward to the ground, but rolled over.

She dived behind the rock as he fired back at her.

She could hear him breathing in ragged gasps.

She’d hit him for sure. Making a mental picture of the spot she’d seen him go down and using the gurgling rattle of his breathing as a guide, she rolled out from behind the boulders.

She’d expected a small target, like the top of his head, and that was about all the guy gave her.

Nonetheless, the shot was at a range of about fifteen feet, and her father had trained his kids thoroughly.

Katie didn’t miss. The top of the man’s head exploded in a grisly eruption of red gore. She glimpsed a palm-sized chunk of the guy’s skull fly up into the air, twirling end over end in macabre flight.

She looked back to her right. Crap! The lump of the first guy was gone. “Splash number two,” she bit out. “Number one’s hit but on the move.”

“Got it,” Alex replied tersely. He switched to Zaghastani. “When I say to go, we’ll go down the hill in front of me. You’ll follow me. Have your gun ready.”

Yikes. They were going to break out of this position and she should expect to shoot her way out.

She backed deeper into the crevice until her back touched his, keeping her vision trained on the slice of forest visible beyond the boulder.

Alex eased away from her and she slid backward again until she contacted his back once more.

She felt his body gather in preparation to leap, and she did the same. Without warning, he jumped up.

A man shouted from what could not have been more than twenty feet away. She spun and darted out of the crack just in time to see Alex shoot the attacker in the face, rendering the guy no longer human.

Another man roared over the top of the boulder from behind them, practically on top of Katie. Terrified beyond any ability to think, she reacted instinctively, whipping up the barrel of her weapon and firing as fast as she could pull the trigger.

The weapon jumped hard in her hand three times, but the fourth time it merely clicked. Empty. Crap. Those had been her last three shots .

Her target yelled and crashed on top of her, knocking her down hard as his weight slammed into her. She hit the dirt hard with the man’s weight crushing her.

She grunted, her breath knocked out of her, and shoved in panic at the man’s unbelievable weight. He was bleeding profusely from a neck wound, soaking her with hot, metallic smelling blood.

He twitched convulsively and then was still on top of her. She heaved for all she was worth and managed to push him aside and pull her legs free of what she hoped was a corpse.

Panting from exertion and panic, she scooped the pistol out of the guy’s hand as Alex gestured urgently from a dozen yards away for her to get moving.

She leaped to her feet and ran for him. His weapon rose fast to point at her and she ducked out of his line of fire as he opened fire at someone behind her.

Jeez! How many guys were out here, anyway?

Alex moved out then, walking fast, placing his feet with cat-like lightness. She tried to mimic him, but it was damned hard work and she was still trying to catch her breath.

They moved through the trees for maybe five minutes in silence. Well, he was silent. She panted like an overheated dog and crackled leaves far too often for safety. Had they eliminated all the bad guys or not?

The longer they went without being shot at, the more her heart rate dropped to something commensurate merely with strenuous exercise. But then her hands started to shake. And then her whole body started to shake.

As she walked, she popped out the clip of this weapon—a Russian make of pistol.

What did that mean? Were these attackers freaking Russians?

She yanked her attention back to the gun in her hand.

Mike had brought a similar model of weapon home from a mission a few years ago.

All her brothers had tried shooting it, and not to be left out, she’d insisted on trying it out, as well.

She was relieved to count eleven bullets in the clip of her stolen weapon. Alex had to be getting low on ammunition by now, too. On cue, he ejected a clip and rammed a new one into place.